Long shot winner

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, Dec. 2, 2004 | 9:11 a.m.

BERKELEY, Calif. -- When it comes to picking a player to hit a game-winning jump shot, the name of UNLV senior Andy Hannan doesn't immediately come to mind.

For good reason.

Before Wednesday night's game at California, Hannan, a 6-foot-6 forward from Minneapolis, had made a grand total of four field goals in his 19-game Rebels career.

He picked a great time to pick up No. 5.

It was Hannan's 19-foot jumper from the right side of the key with less than a second to go that enabled UNLV (2-1) to escape Haas Pavilion with a 73-72 victory against the Bears (3-2).

"I'm thinking it better go in," Hannan replied when asked what was going through his mind when he shot his wide open game-winner. "I was short on a few shots earlier in the game so I made sure I got my legs under it and let it go."

Hannan is now 5-of-26 from the floor in his career.

"I mean he was wide open," said dejected Cal guard Richard Midgley. "You don't want to give up a play like that. I mean, everyone here is a Division I player and can hit an open shot like that."

Cal coach Ben Braun added: "I thought we had it defended pretty well. Then he popped free. We don't want to give anybody a shot like that at the end of a game."

Hannan began the play as a screener for forward Odartey Blankson, who finished with 16 points and 5 rebounds.

"Andy set a great back-pick (for Blankson)," UNLV coach Lon Kruger said. "And (Blankson) started to come open in the far corner. Andy's man hedged a little bit as you would expect him to do. And then I thought Ro (guard Romel Beck) set a really nice pick for Andy. John (Winston) then made a good read and Andy made a good shot."

The Rebels, who committed 24 turnovers and battled severe foul problems after intermission, twice led by as many as 14 points in the second half before sputtering offensively down the stretch. It looked as though the Bears had pulled out the win when guard Marquise Kately sank a 15-foot pull-up jumper with 13.9 seconds left to give Cal a 72-71 lead.

Things looked even bleaker for UNLV a few moments later when point guard Jerel Blassingame was whistled for a charge on a drive to the basket with 3.9 seconds left that sent him to the sideline with his fifth foul.

But the Rebels got the ball back thanks to some good defense by Beck, who smothered Midgley against the baseline on the ensuing inbounds pass and forced Midgley to travel.

"I was trying to force him out of bounds," said Beck, who finished with a team-high 21 points and was 5-of-8 on 3-pointers. "It looked like he took a little skip and the official called the travel."

Midgley said: "I ran real hard to get past my man and I got kind of out of control and traveled. We basically had the game won."

With 2.7 seconds remaining, UNLV called a timeout to set up the game-winning play.

"It was just like we drew it up during the timeout," Hannan said. "(Beck) set a spectacular pick on my man and I was sitting there wide open."

Despite his team's second-half collapse and 24 turnovers, Kruger elected to accentuate the positive afterward.

"Anytime you can hang in there and win a game on the road, when you've kind of lost a fairly sizable lead and the other team makes a run at you, you grow up a little with that," Kruger said. "I think we'll make progress as a result of this."